This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
The term decorative panel in the sense of the disclosure means wall, ceiling, door or floor panels comprising a decoration applied onto a carrier plate. Decorative panels are used in a variety of ways both in the field of interior design of rooms and for decorative cladding of buildings, for example in exhibition stand construction. One of the most common application fields of decorative panels is their use as a floor covering, for cladding ceilings, walls or doors. Herein, the decorative panels often comprise a decoration and a surface structure intended to replicate a natural material.
Examples of such replicated natural materials are wood species such as maple, oak, birch, cherry, ash, walnut, chestnut, wenge or even exotic woods such as Panga Panga, mahogany, bamboo and bubinga. In addition, often natural materials such as stone surfaces or ceramic surfaces are replicated.
Heretofore, such decorative panels have often been produced as laminates in which a decorative paper preprinted with a desired decoration is applied onto a carrier plate and in turn a so-called overlay is applied onto the decorative paper. After optionally a backing paper has been applied to the side of the carrier plate opposite to the decorative paper the laminate structure obtained is fixedly bonded together by use of appropriate pressure and/or heat-activated adhesives.
For protecting the applied decorative layer normally wearing or top layers are applied on top of the decorative layer. It is often provided that in such wearing or top layers a surface structure imitating a decorative template is introduced such that the surface of the decorative panel has a haptically perceivable structure which with respect to its shape and pattern corresponds to the applied decoration in order to achieve a reproduction of a natural material as close to the original as possible even with respect to the haptic.
In forming the top layer with varnishes or lacquers, respectively, the structure in this case is introduced by so-called positive patterning in which the structures are built up by applying a lacquer layer and in particular by selective application of the raised areas of the structure. This is often achieved by negatively structured embossing means adapted to apply the paint layer correspondingly. A disadvantage of such a process may be that in particular large-scale areas can be applied, however, the formation of small and locally restricted areas, such as pores, is very difficult. As a result a highly realistic impression of the structure by positive patterning of lacquers is often possible only to a limited extend. However, negative structuring of paint-containing layers with sufficient quality was previously not possible.
From WO 01/48333 A1 a method for producing surfaces with a decorative upper side for example for use as a floor covering is known. Here, a decorative layer is applied onto a printed surface wherein the top layer can be applied as a plurality of laminate layers which after the application and prior to the application of the respective next laminate layer is partially hardened.
The documents WO 02/28665 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,812 A and EP 2402174 A1 respectively describe the production of decorative elements in which a top layer is applied and is at first partially hardened.